GSK, SpringWorks call it quits on Blenrep combo alliance
License out/inASCOPhase 3
GSK's impressive run of Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin) readouts have been hinting at the BCMA-targeting antibody-drug conjugate's possible return to the multiple myeloma market – however, if it does make a comeback, it won't be as a combination with SpringWorks Therapeutics' nirogacestat.
In a statement, SpringWorks said it was notified by the UK drugmaker that it was terminating their 2022 non-exclusive license agreement centred on testing Blenrep with the former's investigational oral gamma secretase inhibitor in patients with multiple myeloma.
The termination, effective 180 days after GSK's notice on June 6, comes roughly 18 months after the two companies expanded their partnership with an agreement potentially worth $625 million to SpringWorks. That included a $75-million equity investment from GSK and up to $550 million in additional milestone payments.
The two first teamed up in 2019, and amended the collaboration in 2021, to cover the initial clinical development of nirogacestat plus Blenrep in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The expanded arrangement signed in 2022 allowed for studying the combo in earlier lines of treatment, including newly diagnosed patients.
GSK is expected to continue ongoing trials of nirogacestat plus low-dose Blenrep in the 27 patients currently enrolled until completion, while SpringWorks said it would support those efforts with drug supply and publication plans. No payment obligations are triggered for SpringWorks by the termination, and the biotech retains rights to continue developing and commercialising nirogacestat and its other pipeline programmes. It has ongoing partnerships with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie to test nirogacestat in various combinations.
Blenrep was pulled from the US market in late 2022, and appeared to be heading the same way in the EU, after it failed to demonstrate a survival benefit in later-line myeloma patients. However, subsequent successes in the Phase III DREAMM-7 and DREAMM-8 studies – the latter detailed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting earlier this month – have revived the drug's prospects.
GSK indicated recently that it planned to file Blenrep as a second-line and later treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma in the US, EU, Japan and China in the second half. For more, see – KOL Views Q&A: Blenrep could fill important MM treatment gap in community settings, says leading expert.
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